Stories about climate change on WikiTribune – WikiTribunehttps://www.wikitribune.com
Come collaborate with us, because facts really do matterFri, 22 Feb 2019 11:57:40 +0000en-GBhourly1German students strike for coal exit and green futurehttps://www.wikitribune.com/article/95062/?utm_source=rss_feed&utm_medium=site&utm_campaign=climate%20change&pk_campaign=RSS&pk_kwd=climate%20change&pk_source=RSS&pk_medium=RSS&pk_content=climate%20change
https://www.wikitribune.com/article/95062/?talkSat, 15 Dec 2018 01:46:49 +0000https://www.wikitribune.com/?post_type=stories&p=95062School students on strike outside the German Reichstag. Some have Kohle stoppen or end coal written on their faces. On Friday 14 December 2018, secondary school students in Berlin and 13 other German cities followed their peers in Sweden and Australia and skipped class to strike for climate protection. Some hundreds of students attended a […]]]>School students on strike outside the German Reichstag. Some have Kohle stoppen or end coal written on their faces.

On Friday 14 December 2018, secondary school students in Berlin and 13 other German cities followed their peers in Sweden and Australia and skipped class to strike for climate protection.

Some hundreds of students attended a three hour rally outside the German Reichstag (parliament buildings). They called on the German government to end coal mining immediately, describing the practice as “climate killer number one”. Without such a coal exit, Germany is set to miss its 2020 climate targets by a substantial 8%‑points (Amelang 2017, Wehrmann 2017).

Organizer Luisa Neubauer, a 22‑year old university geography student, told WikiTribune that the coal exit “is a must do, it is not a question, it’s not even a question of time, because we know we have to quit coal now”. She added that the exit “needs to be fair and just, no one ever questioned that our transition must be just”.

Neubauer believes that missing the 2020 climate target is outrageous because it is not a technical question but a political one, that the German government decided to miss these targets. She stressed that other countries look to “Germany as a Vorreiter or trailblazer, as a tremendously important country for what we do and don’t do”.

School strikes for the climate originated with 15‑year old Greta Thunberg who, on 20 August 2018, went to the Swedish Riksdag (parliament buildings) instead of school to protest at what she saw as an abject lack of action on climate protection by her own government (Thunberg 2018). The idea of school strikes has since snowballed to other countries.

Student placard expressing frustration

When asked what kind of world would eventuate if no action is taken, Neubauer replied “I don’t think it is even possible to imagine that” and then, on reflection, suggested that there would be “tremendous issues with feeding people, with people fleeing their countries because they are not able to survive where they come from”.

Neubauer said her generation is being let down by politicians: “the consequences of everything we do about the Kohleausstieg or coal exit today is about our future and the people who make decisions today, they won’t be there any more when these consequences will come into real life”.

When asked whether this was fair, Neubauer replied “of course not, it is more than unfair, we know if people would have taken care of this 30 years ago I wouldn’t be standing here with you and I wish I wasn’t, the fact that I am striking here today is very sad”. She quickly added that she is taking a stand “because I don’t want to tell my kids that we have failed to do something about the crisis when we still could”.

]]>https://www.wikitribune.com/article/95062/feed/5Fact Check: Senator Dianne Feinstein’s speech about the effects of climate change on the state of Californiahttps://www.wikitribune.com/article/94706/?utm_source=rss_feed&utm_medium=site&utm_campaign=climate%20change&pk_campaign=RSS&pk_kwd=climate%20change&pk_source=RSS&pk_medium=RSS&pk_content=climate%20change
https://www.wikitribune.com/article/94706/?talkSat, 08 Dec 2018 01:44:29 +0000https://www.wikitribune.com/?post_type=stories&p=94706Senator Dianne Feinstein, United States Senator from California, addressed Congress about the impact of climate change in her state: Full remarks (Congressional Record, 115th Congress, 2nd Session. 164 (2018),193) Texts of the following video excerpts: Sen Dianne Feinstein on Twitter Antarctica holds 90 percent of the world’s ice, and the rate of ice melting and […]]]>

Senator Dianne Feinstein, United States Senator from California, addressed Congress about the impact of climate change in her state:

Antarctica holds 90 percent of the world’s ice, and the rate of ice melting and calving increased six-fold from 1994 to 2012. A six-time increase in ten years. If the West Antarctic ice sheet collapses it will eventually raise sea levels worldwide by 10 feet. https://t.co/EEelKMBJIU

We have to come to terms with the new reality of severe wildfire seasons. The recent Camp Fire, which is the largest fire California has ever had burned down an astonishing 15,000 homes. https://t.co/cf6fxIFd0c

It’s not all bad news, California has mandated that 50 percent of its electricity must be from renewable sources by 2030, and we’re actually ahead of schedule and on track to reach that deadline by 2020. More must be done, but that’s certainly a move in the right direction. https://t.co/CrvTHTsc0k

Claim 1:

“Antarctica holds 90 percent of the world’s ice, and the rate of ice melting and calving increased six-fold from 1994 to 2012”

“A six-time increase in ten years. If the West Antarctic ice sheet collapses it will eventually raise sea levels worldwide by 10 feet”

Fact Check 2: True.

According to a recent report cited by the New York Times, “the melting could destabilize neighboring parts of the ice sheet and a rise in sea level of 10 feet or more may be unavoidable in coming centuries”.

Claim 3:

“We have to come to terms with the new reality of severe wildfire seasons. The recent Camp Fire, which is the largest fire California has ever had burned down an astonishing 15,000 homes.”

Fact Check 3: Mixed.

According to the American Red Cross, “The fire is only 35% contained and is still threatening 15,000 more homes”

UPI reports, “Cal Fire said the fire destroyed an estimated 2,000 structures, including a large swath of the town of Paradise. Another 15,000 are threatened.”

Cal Fire data show that as of December 14, 2018, the Camp Fire was 100% contained and had burned 153,336 acres. A total of 86 civilians died. Among 1,065 firefighters who fought the fire, 3 were injured. Structures destroyed include 13,972 residences, 528 commercial, and 4,293 other buildings.

Claim 4:

“It’s not all bad news, California has mandated that 50 percent of its electricity must be from renewable sources by 2030”

Fact check 4: True.

The California Air Resources Board mentions in their 2030 climate initiative that its goal is “increasing renewable resources to 50 percent of the state’s electricity consumption by 2030 sets California on path to meet its 2050 climate change goals”.

]]>https://www.wikitribune.com/article/94706/feed/2The fight over fish is real, and it’s only going to get worsehttps://www.wikitribune.com/article/90363/?utm_source=rss_feed&utm_medium=site&utm_campaign=Africa&pk_campaign=RSS&pk_kwd=Africa&pk_source=RSS&pk_medium=RSS&pk_content=Africa
https://www.wikitribune.com/article/90363/?talkTue, 02 Oct 2018 14:37:35 +0000https://www.wikitribune.com/?p=90363The critical marine stocks that humans depend on for food could become even more endangered due to climate change, overexploitation, and poor enforcement of existing regulations, raising fears among some experts that fish and other forms of sea life are already becoming another source of geopolitical competition. Examples abound. Only last month, a fleet of […]]]>

The critical marine stocks that humans depend on for food could become even more endangered due to climate change, overexploitation, and poor enforcement of existing regulations, raising fears among some experts that fish and other forms of sea life are already becoming another source of geopolitical competition.

Examples abound. Only last month, a fleet of French fishing vessels chased five British boats from a scallop-rich area (CNN) off the coast of Normandy in an incident dubbed the ‘scallop wars’ by English-language news media. The problem? The French fishermen, whose fishing season starts in October, were furious their British counterparts, who are not limited by law, started trawling for mollusks a month earlier.

“We have quotas, we have hours and they have nothing, no quotas, seven days out of seven they fill their boats. They come, they dredge and they fill their vessel and they go home. They work a month earlier than us and they leave us the crumbs,” said French fisherman Anthony Quesnel.

While it’s unlikely nations would go to war over fish, some experts say these examples highlight the fierce competition countries are engaged in over access to shifting populations of fish and other forms of sea life that are under severe strain due to overexploitation, climate change, and an ever-growing human population.

“Marine species, not just scallops but a lot of the key species that we depend on, like cod, for instance, or sea bass, have been increasingly under strain due to climate change, warming seas, more acidic oceans,” said Heather Alberro, an assistant lecturer at Nottingham Trent University in the UK and an expert on how humans are affecting the environment.

“The scallop wars are just I think the beginning of things to come that are far worse,” she told WikiTribune.

Fish facts

Demand for fish has been growing steadily for decades, and will keep doing so. The global population is expected to rise from just under 8 billion people today to almost 10 billion by 2050.

Meanwhile, average fish consumption per capita has more than doubled since the early 1960s, from 9 kilograms in 1961 to 20.2 kilograms in 2015, according to the latest annual report from the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations (UN).

In other words, the annual increase in fish consumption has been double that of population growth, and also exceeded that of meat from all terrestrial animals combined, according to the FAO.

Over the past few decades, most of this growth has been supplied by the development of aquaculture; farmed fish production is expected to overtake wild fish capture this year. Even so, aquafarming requires enormous amounts of fish meal – sprats, juvenile herring and anchovies, among others – which wild fish also rely on.

“If you’re removing fish from the wild to feed fish in a farm scenario, then you’re going to have an impact on the wild population because you’re removing a food source, aren’t you?” said Danial Hatherley-Hurford, Fisheries Countryside Environment Lecturer at Plumpton College, while showing students through Billingsgate Fish Market in east London on a cloudy Friday morning.

Although wild fish capture volumes have remained relatively steady since the late 1980s, overfishing remains a persistent and growing problem. According to the FAO, “it seems unlikely that the world’s fisheries can rebuild the 33.1 percent of stocks that are currently overfished in the very near future, because rebuilding requires time, usually two to three times the species’ life span.”

Still, Hatherley-Hurford told WikiTribune he sees some cause for optimism. “From a consumer perspective, we need to put more pressure on sustainable fish sources. We need to recognise what we’re buying. And I think that that has happened. There has been a shift that way.”

Cause for concern

Still, competition on the high seas for fish is fierce, and sometimes violent. For example, Indonesia blew up 23 Vietnamese and Malaysian fishing vessels in early 2016 it said were trespassing in territorial waters (The Wall StreetJournal, may be behind paywall). Earlier this year, Argentina issued an international capture order for five Chinese fishing boats it said were fishing illegally in its territorial waters after the Argentinean coast guard fired warning shots.

“It used to be [that] the flag followed trade, helping you acquire colonies; now, the [Chinese] flag follows fishing, helping you acquire indisputable sovereignty,” James Holmes, a professor of strategy at the U.S. Naval War College, told Foreign Policy. “In both cases, private interests act as the vanguard, justifying the state’s reaching for the gun.”

Additionally, experts like Alberro worry that other human-related activities like climate change are changing marine ecosystems in ways that we cannot fully track, much less understand.

“The take-home message is that just when we think we’ve figured something out, [that] we’ve figured out where a particular species is going to be, [where it] is going to migrate, we just keep hitting against uncertainty around what exactly is happening.”

In practice, Alberro said this might mean that the rates of change of marine ecosystems outpace existing political and legal boundaries, and might exacerbate disregard for rules-based fishing arrangements.

“We’ve overfished these seas for so long now”

“We’ve overfished these seas for so long now,” Scott Unwin, 44, owner of Bobby’s Fish Ltd, told WikiTribune. “We’re getting everything, and they’re literally eating everything. You can’t nearly eat some of these things. They’re selling fish, people don’t even know what they are.”

Dodi owner Zaheer Ahmed Dodi, 34, supports the idea of fishing quotas to make the industry more sustainable. He sells mostly “exotic” fish coming from sub-Saharan Africa and South America, which don’t have the same stringent fishing restrictions as in the European Union. He’s not optimistic about the future.

“There won’t be enough fish around. Like African countries, or if you go to Mexico, they don’t have the quota system there, so they just catch whatever they want to,” he told WikiTribune. “I’m struggling at the moment to get enough fish from Africa.”

]]>https://www.wikitribune.com/article/90363/feed/1Tracking Hurricane Florencehttps://www.wikitribune.com/article/87740/?utm_source=rss_feed&utm_medium=site&utm_campaign=category%20four&pk_campaign=RSS&pk_kwd=category%20four&pk_source=RSS&pk_medium=RSS&pk_content=category%20four
https://www.wikitribune.com/article/87740/?talkTue, 11 Sep 2018 09:58:23 +0000https://www.wikitribune.com/?p=87740Florence, a Category Four storm, is bearing down on the U.S. east coast with sustained wind speeds of 220kph (140mph). It’s expected to make landfall on September 13 near Wilmington, North Carolina. Add updates, information or new sections to this story. Category Four is the second-highest hurricane category. President Donald Trump said it would be […]]]>

My people just informed me that this is one of the worst storms to hit the East Coast in many years. Also, looking like a direct hit on North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia. Please be prepared, be careful and be SAFE!

The U.S. National Hurricane Center warned residents of the Carolinas and Virginia that a “life threatening storm surge is likely along portions of the coastlines”.

Mandatory evacuations affecting up to one million people have been ordered in South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia.

Trump gave the green light for emergency declarations in the Carolinas. He said he spoke with the governors of North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia. “Federal Government stands by, ready to assist 24/7.”

Timeline:

Where did Florence start?

What’s its projected path?

Are you affected? How are you preparing?

How are civil society and relief organizations preparing?

Projected costs?

How does Florence compare to previous hurricanes?

International reaction?

]]>https://www.wikitribune.com/article/87740/feed/1How will livestock farmers manage after this year’s extreme weather?https://www.wikitribune.com/article/85589/?utm_source=rss_feed&utm_medium=site&utm_campaign=Australia&pk_campaign=RSS&pk_kwd=Australia&pk_source=RSS&pk_medium=RSS&pk_content=Australia
https://www.wikitribune.com/article/85589/?talkTue, 28 Aug 2018 14:10:04 +0000https://www.wikitribune.com/?post_type=stories&p=85589This year, 2018, is on course to be the fourth hottest year on record (Carbon Brief; NOAA). The summer drought it created has caused food shortages for farmers’ livestock across Europe and Australia (ABC; DW). This has meant livestock farmers have had to use winter silage (compacted grass) just to get through summer, sell livestock […]]]>

This year, 2018, is on course to be the fourth hottest year on record (Carbon Brief; NOAA). The summer drought it created has caused food shortages for farmers’ livestock across Europe and Australia (ABC; DW). This has meant livestock farmers have had to use winter silage (compacted grass) just to get through summer, sell livestock that they are unable to feed, and slaughter earlier than usual. According to The Guardian there are also reports of European farmers going bankrupt.

Questions this article will seek to answer:

How will livestock farmers cope this winter if they have already used their winter feed?

What effect (if any) will this have on food prices?

How many farmers have been affected by having to sell livestock, slaughter earlier or going bankrupt?

]]>https://www.wikitribune.com/article/85589/feed/0After the wildfires: How Californians are struggling to recoverhttps://www.wikitribune.com/article/85467/?utm_source=rss_feed&utm_medium=site&utm_campaign=California&pk_campaign=RSS&pk_kwd=California&pk_source=RSS&pk_medium=RSS&pk_content=California
https://www.wikitribune.com/article/85467/?talkMon, 27 Aug 2018 19:59:20 +0000https://www.wikitribune.com/?p=85467Bobbi Bentum wasn’t frantic when an officer from the sheriff’s department came to evacuate her rural community near the town of Upperlake, California. Her family has seen dozens of wildfires, and experienced at least three other evacuation orders since moving to Elk Mountain Road more than 20 years ago. So, like many Californians, Bentum left […]]]>

Bobbi Bentum wasn’t frantic when an officer from the sheriff’s department came to evacuate her rural community near the town of Upperlake, California. Her family has seen dozens of wildfires, and experienced at least three other evacuation orders since moving to Elk Mountain Road more than 20 years ago. So, like many Californians, Bentum left with her daughter and husband assuming they’d return home after the fire was extinguished, just as they had in the past.

“You always know it could happen, but you never expect it,” Bentum told WikiTribune. “Two weeks ago this was the last thing on my mind, that I’d be homeless.”

What started as a small brush fire on the opposite side of Elk Mountain spread to Bentum’s side of the mountain on the afternoon of July 31. Despite efforts to clear every piece of flammable material, her home, her brother’s home and her parents’ home were consumed by what ultimately became the Mendocino Complex Fire, the largest wildfire in California history.

It’s unlikely the Bentum family will return to Elk Mountain anytime soon. Unlike most homeowners, they don’t carry home insurance, meaning they’d need to personally finance rebuilding their home, which would likely cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Prior to this summer’s fires, every major insurer operating in the area had classified the Bentum’s densely wooded valley property as “high-risk.” This narrowed her insurance options to “last-resort” policies that cost close to $10,000 a year, according to Bentum’s brother, Jayd Michaelson. Because they couldn’t afford the cost, neither the Bentums nor Michaelsons carried insurance on their homes.

In lieu of an insurance payout, friends of the family have set up GoFundMe campaigns to help the two families find reprieve.

Less than half may rebuild after a fire

The future of many rural communities in California is beginning to look bleak, as devastating wildfires destroy homes every year. Like the Bentums and Michaelsons, many homeowners in these remote areas have limited access to affordable insurance, leaving them little incentive to rebuild after the destruction of wildfires turns over their lives.

Even as the Mendocino Complex Fire continues to burn, Lake County, where the Bentum and Michaelson families reside, is still reeling from previous wildfires. Recovery from the Valley Fire, which destroyed 1,281 homes in 2015, has been long, painful and costly.

Of the 1,281 Lake County homeowners directly affected by the fire, only 40 percent rebuilt after the Valley Fire, according to Carol Huchingson, an administrative officer with the county government. Much of the construction effort has come from volunteer organizations, such as Habitat for Humanity (Press Democrat).

‘I’m less concerned about my premiums going up, as much as my insurance being dropped altogether’ – emergency room nurse who lost home in Tubbs Fire

Even though most victims had home insurance, many did not have enough. Industry experts estimate two-thirds of homeowners are underinsured, meaning they don’t have enough coverage to fund a rebuild of their home. That grim statistic gets increased media attention after nearly every wildfire.

Debate around insuring homes in high-risk zones

Policy makers disagree on how to provide insurance in high-risk communities, which report premium increases nearly every year (Press-Telegram). California’s insurance commissioner Dave Jones has advocated for legislation that would help homeowners in high-risk areas get access to more affordable coverage. In a 2017 report, his office found a 250 percent increase in insurance costs between 2015 and 2016 for those in high-risk zip codes.

The commissioner’s report was criticized by environmentalists and actuaries for encouraging people to live in “wildlife-urban interfaces,” a term that describes property adjacent to forested areas at increased risk of fire due to drought conditions (Bloomberg).

Alice Hill, a fellow with the Hoover Institute, argues that policy makers need to realize that fires are becoming more costly because more large homes are being built near dry woodlands. In an interview with Bloomberg in January 2018, Hill said insurers don’t pull out of markets without reason.

“If those risks are getting too high, it’s a strong signal that we need to change our ways,” she said.

‘There’s no doubt that climate change is playing a truly significant role in what we’re facing in California’ – Marin County battalion chief

Dramatically higher insurance costs would upset a large number of constituents. Roughly 3.6 million Californians live in fire-prone wildlife-urban interface areas. If they were to lose access to insurance, they’d have only the California Fair Access to Insurance Requirements (FAIR) Plan to fall back on. FAIR is a privately managed high-risk pool that refers to itself as “last resort” coverage.

But even the 128,708 homeowners enrolled in FAIR are hardly receiving cheap coverage. Jayd Michaelson, who lost his home in the Mendocino Complex Fire, said FAIR plans cost as much as $10,000 a year. FAIR vice president Tammy Schwartz characterizes the plan as a placeholder while homeowners shop for another insurance provider.

“You can get better and cheaper coverage outside of FAIR,” she said.

Carole Walker, spokesperson for the Rocky Mountain Insurance Information Association, says paying more for risky property is unavoidable, even if the government were to take the ill-advised step of entering the insurance game. But she sympathizes with Californians who are desperate for reprieve. Compared with Colorado, the state she specializes in, California homeowners and insurers are spread dangerously thin.

“California has unfortunately seen the worst-case scenario play out with a wildfire in a high-density population,” said Walker, referring to last year’s fire in the Santa Rosa area.

Climate change a significant concern

Widespread anxiety over fire insurance was largely considered a rural issue until the Tubbs Fire jumped over four lanes of highway into densely populated neighborhoods of Santa Rosa, California, in 2017. That fire burned through over 5,000 properties. As a result, many suburban homeowners are worried they’ll slip into the dreaded FAIR program, previously regarded as the domain of those living in more remote areas.

Todd Axberg, an emergency room nurse who lost his home in the Tubbs Fire, has no issue with his insurance policy. It helped him receive a payout large enough to fund most of his rebuilding efforts. But considering Santa Rosa has experienced three major wildfires over the past 50 years, he fears a fourth inferno may be inevitable.

“I’m less concerned about my premiums going up, as much as my insurance being dropped altogether,” Axberg told WikiTribune.

Bret McTigue, a battalion chief with the Marin County Fire Department just north of San Francisco, says everyone should be anticipating the next big wildfire. Like many fire officials nowadays, McTigue cites climate change as the primary reason fires have gotten worse, a reality that hit home after the 2017 Tubbs Fire.

“Ten years ago, you would spend your career and maybe see one major fire like this,” he said. “Now, we’re getting one or two career fires per year … there’s no doubt that climate change is playing a truly significant role in what we’re facing in California.”

]]>https://www.wikitribune.com/article/85467/feed/3US government loosens restrictions on coal emissionshttps://www.wikitribune.com/article/84854/?utm_source=rss_feed&utm_medium=site&utm_campaign=air%20pollution&pk_campaign=RSS&pk_kwd=air%20pollution&pk_source=RSS&pk_medium=RSS&pk_content=air%20pollution
https://www.wikitribune.com/article/84854/?talkTue, 21 Aug 2018 18:30:47 +0000https://www.wikitribune.com/?post_type=stories&p=84854The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced a new plan on August 21 that will overhaul existing regulations on emissions from coal-fired power plants. The Affordable Clean Energy Rule (ACE Rule) hands states the “authority to determine how to restrict carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to global warming.” (Fox News) “The ACE […]]]>

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced a new plan on August 21 that will overhaul existing regulations on emissions from coal-fired power plants.

The Affordable Clean Energy Rule (ACE Rule) hands states the “authority to determine how to restrict carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to global warming.” (Fox News)

“The ACE Rule would restore the rule of law and empower states to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and provide modern, reliable, and affordable energy for all Americans,” EPA Acting Administrator Andrew Wheeler said in a statement (EPA press release).

“Climate-conscious states like California already are mobilizing to fight” the new plan, reported The Los Angeles Times. It said the new looser regulation are a “boon to the coal industry, laying the groundwork for a revival of the most polluting facilities and abandoning Obama-era mandates for reorienting the electricity sector toward clean energy.”

Other U.S. government plans to relax environmental restrictions

• On August 2, the Environmental Protection Agency and Transportation Department released a proposal to freeze antipollution and fuel-efficiency standards for cars, “significantly weakening one of President Barack Obama’s signature policies to combat global warming.” (The New York Times)

Efforts by U.S. states to comply with Paris climate accords despite federal government opposition

• In June 2017, “dozens of states and cities across the country” (The Los Angeles Times) promised to fulfill the U.S. commitment to the Paris climate agreement even without compliance from Washington. Is that effort succeeding?

]]>https://www.wikitribune.com/article/84854/feed/0Reporting the Mendocino Complex firehttps://www.wikitribune.com/article/83339/?utm_source=rss_feed&utm_medium=site&utm_campaign=California&pk_campaign=RSS&pk_kwd=California&pk_source=RSS&pk_medium=RSS&pk_content=California
https://www.wikitribune.com/article/83339/?talkThu, 09 Aug 2018 22:12:37 +0000https://www.wikitribune.com/?p=83339WikiTribune journalist Charles Turner is reporting from the Mendocino Complex Fire. Here’s what we need: Have you, or anyone you know, suffered from a wildfire? EDIT this article, add TALK comments or fill out this survey: https://wikitribune-2.forms.fm/wildfires/forms/5343 What are the various interest groups involved in the aftermath of a major fire? This includes fire departments, government/tax […]]]>

Here’s what we need:

What are the various interest groups involved in the aftermath of a major fire? This includes fire departments, government/tax offices, insurance/bank representatives, developers/contractors, environmental groups, politicians and property owners themselves.

Why were major towns spared from the Mendocino Complex fire?

Does the U.S. have a robust fire safety system, or a subpar one, compared to other countries?

Would more logging, if done responsibly, make wildfires less intense in the future?

People to interview:

Michael Mann: Director of the Earth System Science Center at Penn State University

]]>https://www.wikitribune.com/article/83339/feed/0Author Diana Coole: ‘Not sustainable’ for Earth’s population to keep increasinghttps://www.wikitribune.com/article/82994/?utm_source=rss_feed&utm_medium=site&utm_campaign=climate%20change&pk_campaign=RSS&pk_kwd=climate%20change&pk_source=RSS&pk_medium=RSS&pk_content=climate%20change
https://www.wikitribune.com/article/82994/?talkThu, 09 Aug 2018 09:00:52 +0000https://www.wikitribune.com/?post_type=stories&p=82994By 2100 this planet’s population will reach 11.2 billion, the United Nations predicts. Diana Coole, professor of political and social theory at Birkbeck, University of London, argues this is a serious problem. In her latest book Should We Control World Population? Coole argues that humanity can reduce Earth’s population in accordance with human rights — and that it […]]]>

By 2100 this planet’s population will reach 11.2 billion, the United Nations predicts. Diana Coole, professor of political and social theory at Birkbeck, University of London, argues this is a serious problem. In her latest book Should We Control World Population? Coole argues that humanity can reduce Earth’s population in accordance with human rights — and that it should do so.

Water demand is projected to increase 55 percent by 2050 (relative to 2000), and food 60 percent. This will put further strain on meeting people’s needs, when over half of the Earth’s land surface is already under considerable pressure. Species are becoming extinct 100 to 1,000 times above the natural rate (New Scientist), humans have raised the planet’s temperature 1 degree higher than pre-industrial levels, and there is a 95 percent chance that Earth will warm by an overall 2 degrees by the end of the century, according to one study.

For these reasons Coole has decided to have only one child. She told WikiTribune there should be no legal imperative for couples to have fewer children. But reducing world population is a public debate which needs to be had, even if it’s taboo because “the shadow of Nazism looms very large.”

Coole said one of her students told her she and her partner had initially planned five children. But the woman told her professor: “After doing your course, we’ve decided we’re only going to have two children.” And while that’s progress for Coole, she’s “horrified” that U.S. President Donald Trump has withdrawn American funding for the United Nations Population Fund, which is pro-choice when it comes to abortion.

Coole said “we’re often pushing at an open door”, with the UN Population Fund, quoting a figure of 214 million women in developing countries who want to avoid pregnancy, but many of whom don’t have access to family planning methods.

WikiTribune spoke to Coole on how human population could be reduced, how she regards claims that technology will solve population crisis problems, and future prospects for human quality of life.

WikiTribune: By 2100 the human population may exceed 11 billion. What are the problems of Earth’s population rising to this?

Coole: Adding around another four billion is going to have a huge impact, particular since most of the rise is going to be in Africa… they obviously have to be building infrastructure, schools, health systems, transport systems, agricultural capacity, and so on. And if you’re trying to do that with a population that’s constantly increasing… you’re having to run just to stand still…if we see the kind of displacement from jobs associated with robots and AI that people are talking about, we could have huge global population without jobs. And how we’re going to support them?

You say humanity can reduce our numbers in a way that’s compatible with human rights. How should we go about reducing world population?

Coole: Many women bear many more children than they would choose to do, and it’s estimated often that something like 40 percent of worldwide conceptions are accidental. So I think as a beginning if we could make sure that every child born is a planned and wanted child, and that every woman has the knowledge and the services available to ensure that every birth is actually chosen and wanted… I don’t think you can absolutely enforce a two child policy, but I certainly think that you could encourage people to not have more than two children.

What do you say to those that say that technology will solve the problems associated with population rise?

Coole: I think it’s very easy to pull out technology as a magic bullet. We’re asking an awful lot of technologies which haven’t even been invented … Say we do have the technology to support over 11 billion people — I think it still comes back to the question what kind of lives are those people going to live? I live in London where around 100,000 people have been moving to the city every year. And it’s projected, like most world cities, to increase massively. And it just seems to me that things like traffic congestion, pollution, trying to access social services, schools and so on: it begins to feel more and more like musical chairs, where there’s never enough to go around. City planning is focusing more and more on reducing people’s living spaces, building high rises. It doesn’t seem to me that that’s congenial to people having good mental and physical health outcomes.

Since the book was released in the UK, what have been the biggest criticisms?

Coole: I think there’s been a whole generation that simply associates reducing world population with population control — with eugenics, with racism, with colonialism … people assume that if you want fewer people, you’re going to use coercive methods [and] abuse human rights. And in that context I think the Indian example did more damage to the cause than anything … [But] in Iran, the mullahs were on the side of reducing numbers during the 1980’s and they made it compulsory that anyone getting married should learn about the advantages of having small families. They disseminated contraception from the villages … So it absolutely doesn’t seem to me that this has to be coercive.

‘Without political will of governments and transnational organizations … I’m deeply pessimistic about the world reducing its population’ – Cole

How will we feed the world in 2100? And if everyone only ate the necessary amount of calories would we be able to support many more people?

Coole: A lot of people suggest that we could easily feed 11 billion people if we all became vegans, for example. Personally I think the chances of that happening are very remote. If we just look at countries like China, as populations become wealthier and more developed, they tend to have diets much richer in meat and higher calories, and [are] increasingly unsustainable … We could have a world which went back to massive famines… The idea that somehow politically we’re going to, say, wean Americans off their high calorie diets, and get them eating like Indians over the next few decades — it just seems to me that that’s not really going to happen.

Can we reduce world population and have a growing economy, when as you say it would lead to at least a temporarily globally aging population?

Coole: We can’t sing we want more and more economic growth and therefore we need more and more people to spur that growth. It’s simply not sustainable, and I’m a bit skeptical about this ideal that we have to keep having economic growth … I mean why do we need to be even wealthier in developed societies? Why do we need to keep producing more and more and consuming more and more commodities?

How hopeful are you that humanity will do something of significant effect to reduce world population before 2050, or 2100?

Coole: If we reduce infant mortality, people won’t produce extra children in case some die. So, I think there’s a huge role for governments to recognize the ills of population growth, and to have a win-win situation to incentivize people to have fewer children. But I think without political will of governments and transnational organizations, I would say, I’m deeply pessimistic about the world reducing its population.

]]>https://www.wikitribune.com/article/82994/feed/6Timeline: Wildfires across the globehttps://www.wikitribune.com/article/80733/?utm_source=rss_feed&utm_medium=site&utm_campaign=climate&pk_campaign=RSS&pk_kwd=climate&pk_source=RSS&pk_medium=RSS&pk_content=climate
https://www.wikitribune.com/article/80733/?talkThu, 26 Jul 2018 15:30:03 +0000https://www.wikitribune.com/?post_type=stories&p=80733The incidence of wildfires across the world appears to have been unusually high in the past 12 months. Wildfires – defined as a sudden, quickly-spreading conflagration – have happened in Greenland, Siberia and Sweden, as well as more common locations such as California and Greece. This timeline lists some of the main wildfires known about […]]]>

The incidence of wildfires across the world appears to have been unusually high in the past 12 months. Wildfires – defined as a sudden, quickly-spreading conflagration – have happened in Greenland, Siberia and Sweden, as well as more common locations such as California and Greece.

This timeline lists some of the main wildfires known about since summer 2017. Add or expand with more facts: